Fulton Performance Scores Showing Gains, Officials Say

July 14, 2008 Nicole Reome

FULTON, NY – Fulton city school district continues to work on initiatives to raise performance levels in English/language arts and math to meet the standards set by the state of New York. While gains have been made, officials say the district continues to press forward.

Elizabeth Conners, the district’s executive director of instruction and assessment, provided a brief overview of the New York State assessment results for students in grades three through eight during the recent meeting of the Fulton Board of Education.

Overall, Conners explained that Fulton is making progress.

“The Board of Regents set two goals… raise achievement and close assessment gaps,” Conners explained. “Fulton is doing exactly those things.”

Conners pointed out that Fulton’s assessment scores are showing performance increases in both English/language arts and mathematics scores.

“The decline in performance we typically see after grade five is decreasing,” Conners said. She noted, too, that the gap is narrowing for the numbers of students with disabilities who perform at level 1 on the assessments.

“We perform very comparably with the rest of the state (at each grade level),” Conners added. “And extensive measures are in place at Fulton Junior High School to address concerns.”

Conners noted that students are showing growth in mathematics performance, as well.

Without showing comparisons from past years, Conners provided the board with performance scores for the 2007-08 assessments for students in grades three-eight.

Assessment performance is broken down into four levels by the state. Level four represents mastery performance on assessments while level 1 shows the student population with the lowest scores.

District-wide performance in mathematics show:

3rd grade

  • 90.4 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 7.2 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 2.2 percent of students performing at level 1

4th grade

  • 79.5 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 15.2 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 5.2 percent of students performing at level 1

5th grade

  • 83.3 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 14 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 2.7 percent of students performing at level 1

6th grade

  • 93.2 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 5.8 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 1 percent of students performing at level 1

7th grade

  • 79.7 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 16.7 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 3.6 percent of students performing at level 1

8th grade

  • 52.9 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 41 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 6.1 percent of students performing at level 1

District-wide performance in English/language arts show:

3rd grade

  • 66.9 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 27.6 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 5.5 percent of students performing at level 1

4th grade

  • 67.4 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 20.1 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 12.5 percent of students performing at level 1

5th grade

  • 76 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 22 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 2 percent of students performing at level 1

6th grade

  • 74.1 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 25.2 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 0.7 percent of students performing at level 1

7th grade

  • 69.5 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 28 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 2.5 percent of students performing at level 1

8th grade

  • 48.7 percent of students performing at levels 3 and 4
  • 43.8 percent of students performing at level 2
  • 7.5 percent of students performing at level 1

“Is there work to do? Yes,” Conners noted. “But we follow state trends and we are making gains.”

Board member Robbin Griffin pointed out that the state Board of Regents is currently discussing raising the level of difficulty on state assessments. She stressed that Fulton needs to continue to move its efforts forward, rather than slow down because of success it sees at this time. Conners agreed.

“We need to celebrate successes but look to the future,” Conners noted. “We can’t be complacent.”

The full assessment report will be delivered to the board of education in September. missing or outdated ad config

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